Hi all, I recently acquired my sisters old acoustic guitar, I've been playing electric guitar for 7 years, and I like acoustic guitars but never had one until now.

Note: It's a really bad guitar, the neck was split when I got it, so I fixed that with glue and reinforced it with a screw. I know the risks of putting steel strings on a classical guitar: Bridge being ripped off, no steel rod in the neck so it could warp, tuning pegs breaking, etc.

The guitar is old so I don't really care if the neck warps, etc, anyway. The problem is that I really dislike the sound of nylon strings and it definitely does not suit my style.

I'm simply looking for a way to reinforce the bridge, so that it doesn't get ripped off by the tension put on by the steel strings.

Two options I can see:
1) Make a new bridge with a tab on the base, and cut a hole in the guitar top to fit this tab - it'll take up the horizontal loading.
2) Add a trapeze tailpiece, and use the current bridge for the saddle.

Two options I can see:
1) Make a new bridge with a tab on the base, and cut a hole in the guitar top to fit this tab - it'll take up the horizontal loading.
2) Add a trapeze tailpiece, and use the current bridge for the saddle.

Good luck with the conversion, make sure you post pics of the result

The first idea definitely sounds easier. I'm not that guitar savvy when it comes down to the construction level, so could you please elaborate on the first idea?

dont tune the strings to E, use D instead. and use med-light gauge or smaller

I might do that, thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boysie8

I'd say the second option would be easier actually, just screw in a new bridge. However for your consideration:

You would have to reinforce the hell out of the top still, to take up the extra tension.

How about something like this to reinforce it:
I'll use an analogy with cargo doors in pressurised aircraft (lol) - the inside of the door is BIGGER then the opening, i.e. when the door is closed, it CANNOT open when the airplane is pressured because the door will simply be pushing on the fuselage, instead of open space.

Similarily, I could do this with the bridge: Have the bottom of the bridge extend past the hole, which means that when there is tension on the bridge, it will push on the base of the guitar, and allow that to take the force of the strings.

Like this:

However as I said I don't know too much about the construction of guitars so I don't know if this would work. But what do you think?

That's not a bad idea, the trick is installing it. You could just glue a square bit of reinforcing timber to the underside, then screw the bridge down into it - mounting the screws under the saddle so they're invisible once assembled.

Use 9's and dont do anything special unless you see a problem. If the bridge has been holding its own with nylon strings, it can probably hold 9's. If the bridge does start to lift off (or the wood around it starts to bulge and dip), drill two holes and put dowels through. there are a number of ways to attach the dowels to the back, or (slightly prefered) to support them without touching the sound board.